Following a number of media reports that state that Covid-19 patients no longer need to test negative to resume work, the Department of Employment and Labour (DEL) notes that this is false and instead that certain criteria need to be met before an employee that tests positive for Covid-19 can return to work.

The DEL health and safety chief inspector Tibor Szana says it is false that Covid-19 patients no longer need to test negative to resume work.

“In terms on the new directions, if a worker has been diagnosed with Covid-19 and isolated in accordance with the Department of Health’s guidelines, an employer may only allow a worker to return on conditions that, the worker has completed the mandatory 14 days of self-isolation.”

Other conditions include the worker having to undergo a medical evaluation confirming fitness to work if the worker had moderate or severe illness in relation to Covid-19.

He says it is vital for the employer to ensure that personal hygiene, wearing of masks, social distancing and cough etiquette, among other known best practices identified, are strictly adhered to by the worker, and that the employer must closely monitor the worker for symptoms upon returning to work.

Szana explains that, in the instance where a worker who tests positive for Covid-19 returns to work, such a worker will be required to wear a surgical mask for at least 21 days from the date of the diagnosis so as not to spread the virus.

The new directive also states that employers must assess the severity of exposure of workers who have had Covid-19 to those who have not, in accordance with the Department of Health’s guidelines.

“If there is low risk exposure, the employer may permit the worker to continue working using a cloth mask and complying with standard precautions,” he says, adding that such employees symptoms must be monitored for 14 days from the first contact.

If there is high risk of exposure, Szana says the at-risk worker must remain in quarantine for 14 days, and the employer should place that employee on sick leave.